Detachable button.



E. GEBHARDT.

DETACHABLE BUTTON. APPLICAIION FILED MAR. 21. 1916.

Patented J1me 11, 1918.

EDWIN GEBHARDT, OF NORWOOD, OHIO.

'DETACHABLE BUTTON.

Application filed March 27, 1916.

ing them in place in a buttonhole or the like.

Such buttons are used principally for insignia to be attached to thecoat lapel or the like, but they may also be used for any purpose inwhich a button i applied, such as a shirt stud, a fancy vest button andsuch like. I have as my object the providing of a button which may beeasily attached in place, and which cannot be dislodged by a strai 'htpull,.but may be removed easily and quickly "by merely separating thepartsthereof with a screwing motion.

I have discovered that by provldlng a certain friction holding device ina button back, ,that a button having a post maybe inserted in thefriction device and cannot, be removed therefrom. However the twistingandpullingv of the parts atthe same time will separate them, andaccordingly itis ny.object to provide a button havingthese features.

It is old in the art to provide a button which maybe attached inplaceandremoved by separating the parts, but the disadvantage of structuresof this nature has been that it i a tedious matter to insert the buttonsin cards for sale. A button in which thepost screws into the back, forexample, requires a screwing into the mounting or display cards for eachindividual button. The labor is very diflicult, as the buttons are sosmall and the time of mounting an order of say, one hundred thousandcampaign buttons, would be prohibitive. Then, too, this labor ofinserting the button is disagreeable to theuser as well. A button inwhich the post merely pushes into place in abacking portion is notsatisfactory for the purpose of my button unless it isremovable, so thevarious devices in the class of buttons .known as bachelors buttons donot answer for my purposes. In these buttons the post pushes intoplace,'but once there it is Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 11, 1918.

Serial No. 86,839.

not removable unless the button is broken to pieces.

The objects of my invention, whereby the above difliculties are doneaway with, I accomplish by that certain construction and arrangement ofparts to be hereinafter more specifically pointed out and claimed.

In the drawing,

Figure l is a perspective view ofa button assembled.

Fig. 2 is a like view of theback portion of the button.

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the revolving disk mounting.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the re tainin g disk.

Fig. 5 is a vertical section of a modified form of the parts shown inFig. 2.

Fig. 6 is an elevational view showing the retaining, disk in place overa button post.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of another form ofbutton disk.

The button has a head 1, which has on it the decoration of the button.Thus if it is a vest button, it will have some sort of jewel mount orthe like, and if it is an insignia button it will be faced with anemblem, or

device such as may be desired. This head has a post 2 extendingtherefrom, which post may be smooth or screwthreaded. The smooth post ispractical, as it is all that is necessary and will hold perfectly, aswell as unscrew, as will be described; but since it is desired to have a.post which is easier to unscrew, the screw post is preferred.

The essential feature of the back or retaining portion of thebutton isan expanding, retaining disk, securely held in a shell of anydesired-type. The disk might, if desired, in a very cheap construction,beused by itself, but the separation of theparts would not be so easy aswill benoted. The disk 3 is constructed preferably of steel, and has acentral aperture 4E of approximately the size of the button post, Fromthis aperture are cut the radial cuts 5, 5, to give the disk theexpanding feature, and further cutaway portions 6, 6, may be made asdesired to give spring and resiliency to the disk. The periphery of thedisk has preferably the cuts 7, 7, therein to facilitate the tightholding of the same within the shell 8 of the back, and add furtherresiliency.

In the preferred form of disk, Fig. 4, the

slits 5 are very short and the cutaway portions 6 abut the centralaperture, so as to leave the cut edges of the hole 4 in the shape ofpoints a, b, 0, d. In this form also the cuts at 7 are made so as toleave flattened edges 7 7 which serve the same purpose as the cuts 7(Fig. 7 and economize in cost of production, at the same timestrengthening the disk. The added resiliency of the alternative form(Fig. 7) is not needed in the form of disk shown in Fig. 4-.

The operation of the disk is not dependent upon the way it is mounted.The post of the button is inserted in the disk and pushed in. This willresult in a spreading of the metal around the aperture by the thickerportions of the post, and these portions will remain in spread position,firmly clamping the disk on the post. A pull on the disk or post willnot separate them, but will pull them more tightly together, but it iscomparatively easy to unscrew the disk from the post. The disk and postare the essential features of my invention, and the other parts aremerely intended to make simple and easy the operation of the parts, andfor the sake of neatness of appearance.

It is not necessary to have a tapered post for the button, and the postin Fig. 6 is the desired form. The size of the aperture l in theretaining disk is to be smaller than the post, but its sizing does notneed to be accurate, and it will fit considerable variations of posts.

This feature is a great advantage in button making, as the parts aresmall and variations in size of posts in any one lot of buttons arebound to occur. In the past, if the screw post, for example, were notthe right size, the button would have to be rejected.

The back of the button in the most convenient form comprises a shell 8,having in most types of button a central rear aperture 9 to allowpassage of the post 2 when it is inserted. This shell is brought uparound the disk and holds it tightly and nonrotatably in place. A disk10 is provided, on which is pivoted a rotating smaller disk 11. Theedges 12 of the shell are bent over the edge of the disk 10 and thisdisk forms the closure for the backing piece. The rotatable or pivotalmounting of the disk 11 comprises a tubular portion 13, secured on theinside of the disk 10, and extending through the disk 11, being bentover at 13 to loosely engage said disk 11. This disk 11 has teeth 14 onits outer surface, for a purpose to be described, and the tubular memberserves as the entering aperture for the button post.

If preferred, the disk 10 may be provided with teeth 14, and therotatable member entirely omitted (Fig. 5) thus simplifying the parts,but making it a little more diflicult to separate the post from theretaining disk.

For that matter, the teeth might be omitted entirely, but this wouldrender the backing without any function except for appearance, as therewould be about as much difiiculty in separating the parts of the buttonas if the backing were omitted altogether.

The operation of the button is very simple. For aflixing the post inplace, Where it will be looked as described, it is merely pushed intothe holein the backing. When this is done, the teeth 14 will engage inthe rear of the cloth in which the button is placed. In removing thepost from the back, it must be unscrewed. In the modification in Fig. 5,the head of the button is taken in the fingers and unscrewed in theordinary manner, the teeth holding the back of the button in the cloth.

In the form shown in Fig. 2, the back and button may be unscrewedtogether, one from one side and one from the other of the cloth, as thetoothed disk will hold fast to the garment.

If the teeth are absent altogether, the button will not stay in place sowell, and for this reason among others I prefer to have the backingtoothed as shown. The parts may be unscrewed, however, as is obvious.

In order to provide for a disk that will unscrew easily from a screwpost, and that will not strip the threads in unscrewing, the followingdevices are employed: In the first place the screwthreads 15 on the post2 are made with flat faces so that pushing the post into the back willnot tend to rub away the thread.

The disk is formed with its points a, b, on one side of the disk, and c,d, on the other, alternately turned up and down. Thus the points a andd, and the points I) and 0 will fit within the threads on opposite sidesof a screw post within certain limits to allow for variation.

If these points were not turned up and down, or if the slit portions ofthe disk were allowed to remain as in Fig. 7, then the unscrewing of thedisk would result in a stripping of the threads of the post. This isbecause a disk having an aperture the approximate size for the screwwould be of less cross-sectional area than the horizontal crosssectionof the screw. The points being turned up and down, however, allow thedisk to unscrew horizontally, without being forced over the top of athread at every revolution.

It has been found that a disk constructed as above described will pushon and unscrew from a button post for years of ordinary use withoutstripping the thread.

It should not be construed that this invention is only applicable to thetype of button known as the insignia button. The feature of a separablebutton which can be securely fastened into place by pressing its partstogether and which has no special device for releasing the post from theback, is as applicable to shirt studs and buttons as well as lapelbuttons.

I do not wish to be limited in the claims that follow to the exactstructure described in the foregoing specification as the descriptionrefers but to the preferred form of my invention; on the contrary I Wishto be entitled to the full scope of the doctrine of equivalents in theconstruction of my claims. Also I do not wish to be limited in my claimsbecause of my failure at this time to appreeiate the full usefulness ofmy invention, as I intend it to be used in the future in any manner thatmay turn out to be economical and convenient,-and that mere mechanicalchanges necessary to adapt it to future uses be fully included in thescope of my inven tion.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In a removable button, a flat disk having a central aperture, withthe body of the disk slit adjacent the aperture to form spring tongues,a back for the button bent around the said disk and having an apertureregistering with the aperture in the disk, said disk having its edgescut at the periphery thereof to prevent the rotation thereof within theback, and a head for the button having a post thereon adapted toslidably enter the aperture in the disk, and to be withdrawn therefromonly by unscrewing the same.

2. In a removable button, a flat disk having a central aperture with thebody of the disk slit adjacent the aperture to form spring tongues, aback for the button bent around the disk, and a cover disk for the back,said cover having rotatably mounted thereon a second disk, said seconddisk having pointed tongues thereon, for the purpose described, saiddisks and back having apertures registering with the flat disk aperture,and a head for the button having a post thereon adapted to slidablyenter the aperture in the disk, and to be withdrawn therefrom only byunscrewing the same.

3. In a removable button, a back, a flat spring disk, a cover disk, anda revoluble disk on the cover disk, said back bent around the threedisks, said spring disk having its edges cut away to make itnonrotatable within the back, apertures through the assembly, and thespring disk having the portions thereof adjacent the aperture split soas to form spring tongues, a head forthe button, said head having a postadapted to slidably enter the aperture in the spring disk and to bewithdrawn therefrom only by unscrewing.

EDWVIN GEBI-IARDT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

